Basu: Is Branstad at fault for state government's office 'culture'?

Sep. 7, 2013

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In the wake of Brian London’s apparently forced departure last week after 11 embattled months at the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Gov. Terry Branstad said the commissioner he appointed hadn’t really understood “the culture” of public safety in Iowa. Branstad Chief of Staff Jeff Boeyink had, in fact, lobbied hard for London’s confirmation by the Iowa Senate when it appeared to be in danger. He even got London a $16,000 recruitment bonus to hike his pay above the specified range. Maybe it wasn’t coincidence that Boeyink left the administration shortly before London did.

Agency culture cannot alone be blamed for London’s decision to suspend and then fire a longtime DCI agent who had brought attention to an unticketed speeding violation by a state trooper driving the governor and lieutenant governor. London’s likely intention was to protect his boss, Branstad, who was in the car going at speeds above 84 miles an hour. To really clean up the culture, Branstad should make it clear he wants no such protection. Yet the governor had nothing to say when whistleblower Larry Hed­lund was fired or the trooper driving Branstad was made to take the fall for speeding.

Institutional cultures percolate down from the top, the result of particular institutional priorities. The governor also called “culture” — union rules, in particular — the culprit at the Iowa Juvenile Home after it was exposed to be using long-term isolation cells for discipline. Yet when the superintendent and clinical director said the home was providing a poor standard of care and increasing the risk of serious injury and death to young people, Chuck Palmer, the director of the Iowa Department of Human Services which oversees the home, disagreed.

Does that make him part of the cultural problem? If so, what has Branstad done about that? What responsibility does the state public health agency have for giving the home a near-perfect score a year ago, under the same conditions that this year resulted in 15 citations for violating minimum standards of care? If it is a cultural problem all these agencies are suffering from, the buck must stop at the top.

Ironically, in one state government workplace, the culture was undeniably poisoned by one official. Assistant Iowa Law Enforcement Academy Director Michael Quinn reportedly made numerous sexually inappropriate comments to women — in violence against women training, no less — resulting in the teaching grant being pulled from his command. But academy Director Arlen Ciechanowski only reprimanded Quinn, while firing employee, Nancy Brady, who blew the whistle.

When the state ombudsman tried to get Quinn’s personnel files to investigate allegations against him, the Department of Administrative Services pushed back. Those files did eventually arrive, but Attorney General Tom Miller is taking the new position that the ombudsman needs court orders to access tapes of closed-session discussions of public boards. A deputy of his said the ombudsman shouldn’t be able to “second-guess” decisions coming out of those meetings.

Why have an ombudsman if she’s not given full access? Government decision-making is supposed to be open and transparent. This isn’t a partisan problem; the governor is a Republican and the attorney general is a Democrat. One former Department of Administrative Services employee who got a $70,000 settlement to stop appealing his termination calls it cronyism. His grievances alleged the department and its director manipulated and violated Iowa’s merit employment system.

Dean Ibsen was a 13-year state employee, a construction/design engineer in the energy program. His job involved implementing the American Institute of Architects’ type of contracts for design and construction services, and developing and implementing “Project Labor” agreements for major construction contracts under an executive order issued by former Gov. Chet Culver but rescinded by Branstad.

Ibsen alleged he was let go because those initiatives were opposed by Master Builders of Iowa, an industry group with ties to Mike Carroll, whom Branstad appointed in 2011 to run the Department of Administrative Services. Ibsen says he was forced to sign a so-called “voluntary” demotion letter in 2011 under threat of lay-off and was reassigned to a new program as a non-merit employee so his old duties could be turned over to a newly hired employee who had worked for a Master Builders member company. Ibsen says Branstad also appointed the Master Builder’s president to chair an advisory committee in 2011. Ibsen documented what he says are many relationships between agency hires, industry friends and the Master Builders of Iowa.

In his new position, Ibsen served on a selection committee to hire someone who would turn out to be his own replacement, as he was subsequently laid off — someone the committee’s three members had deemed unqualified. The nine members of his group were all laid off, and several got settlements to drop their appeals, he said. The grievance was denied by the Iowa Board of Regents, which is headed by a Branstad appointee.

Ibsen has done OK for himself. He now works at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, which encourages employees to come forward when they or others make mistakes, so the mistakes can be corrected.

For as much as cultures are being faulted in Iowa, cultures can be good, too.